Mansfield away 2nd April

[Melbourne Cobbler]

It’s all should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. We are 2 players short of being able to consistently dominate sides. A creative player and a goal scorer. But we are a work in progress and it’s a long term plan. Virtually everyone  agreed that’s what was needed, so we should understand we need time, patience, and steady progress. I’d like to see us in the play offs, but we all know we are going to have to work miracles in the transfer market in the summer to stay up if we make it. I think this season has been far more positive than most expected, and it’s not over yet by a long way. If Mansfield are amongst the best this division has to offer we’ve nothing to fear from anyone, 2 players short or not.

[corno_ntfc]

Brady's blaming the ref for the defeat. Not our fault then !!!!!!!!!

Easy way to deflect attention away from the players

If form continues (3W, 4D, 4L) we'll be out of the playoffs

[guest2995]

I would agree that we have been poor for some time now but i have yet to hear anyone come up with how they would do anything differently .
We have been ravaged by injuries all season and McWilliams is the latest crucial player to affect us .
The recruitment has been largely successful and most people would have accepted the players we brought in during the window .
Etete left without giving any notice at all because his agent wanted an earner .
We failed to get another midfielder who pulled out at the very last minute on deadline day from a championship club .
Our highest paid player by far is a legacy signing that is next to useless .
If we played 2 up front it may help but our midfield gets over ran .
We are over performing and patience is needed .

[guest49]

I would agree that we have been poor for some time now but i have yet to hear anyone come up with how they would do anything differently .
We have been ravaged by injuries all season and McWilliams is the latest crucial player to affect us .
The recruitment has been largely successful and most people would have accepted the players we brought in during the window .
Etete left without giving any notice at all because his agent wanted an earner .
We failed to get another midfielder who pulled out at the very last minute on deadline day from a championship club .
Our highest paid player by far is a legacy signing that is next to useless .
If we played 2 up front it may help but our midfield gets over ran .
We are over performing and patience is needed .

All reasons/excuses but all teams have their own problems to deal with and navigate throughout a long season, we’re just more aware of ours.
Far from out of the mix but covid seems to be where we never recovered…but again, every team’s had covid to contend with.
We’ve built a good defence but failed to get the strikers scoring. I say that because everyone says they are not good enough but the focus also has to be on the training, coaching and how you use them. We clearly saw something in them all to sign them.

Will be a huge disappointment (and I’d say failure) if we manage to miss out on a play off place, considering our position all season. It could be a blessing in disguise though to try again next season.

[Welly Cobb]

I would agree that we have been poor for some time now but i have yet to hear anyone come up with how they would do anything differently .
We have been ravaged by injuries all season and McWilliams is the latest crucial player to affect us .
The recruitment has been largely successful and most people would have accepted the players we brought in during the window .
Etete left without giving any notice at all because his agent wanted an earner .
We failed to get another midfielder who pulled out at the very last minute on deadline day from a championship club .
Our highest paid player by far is a legacy signing that is next to useless .
If we played 2 up front it may help but our midfield gets over ran .
We are over performing and patience is needed .

I'd like to know more about those two bits, if you could elaborate?

[Welly Cobb]

I also noticed that the list of agents fees was released a few days ago, which put us 11th on the table spent. I know there is not a 1-to-1 correlation between the amount spent on agents and resources and budgets, but I imagine there is some correlation with the absence of any data about clubs actual wage bills.

So, you can look at this season in two ways.

Brady has probably got us hitting a little bit above our weight compared to the budget we have. The cost of this is that the football, based on any metric I can get to assess the style of football, is statistically worse than Curles last year. So, if you're going to judge him by the results he's got this year, the team is doing well. If you're going to judge him by bums-off-seat football, then we're doing appallingly.

[FezNTFC]

They gave their all. But we were second best all afternoon yesterday and to only be able to muster a rather tame header at the goalkeeper all second half in a promotion six pointer, as a reaction to being 1-0 down, isn't very good to be honest. Ultimately though Mansfield are just a better side than we are at the moment, and that's all it really boiled down to.

Eppiah for me has to start the next game if he's got 70 minutes in the bank - he was the only player other than Pinnock and Hoskins that looked likely to do anything yesterday.

I think Brady might to go 4-4-2 next game given Lewis will be out. Might be interesting to see if two of our strikers can form a partnership.

[Clarity]

First of all well done for staying in the hunt for automatic promotion so far this season. However, is this the dullest team we’ve ever had in this position?

I feel sorry for any of the forwards he picks as they have nothing to feed off. Both Pinnock and Hoskins tend to come inside instead of trying to run their fullback and get crosses in. Our play is so predictable and most attacks fizzle out where we go back and sideways until we lose the ball.

Our coach thinks more about trying not to lose rather than trying to win.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

I also noticed that the list of agents fees was released a few days ago, which put us 11th on the table spent. I know there is not a 1-to-1 correlation between the amount spent on agents and resources and budgets, but I imagine there is some correlation with the absence of any data about clubs actual wage bills.

So, you can look at this season in two ways.

Brady has probably got us hitting a little bit above our weight compared to the budget we have. The cost of this is that the football, based on any metric I can get to assess the style of football, is statistically worse than Curles last year. So, if you're going to judge him by the results he's got this year, the team is doing well. If you're going to judge him by bums-off-seat football, then we're doing appallingly.

If we paid anything to Etetes, I want our money back.

[guest3086]

The covid season we were extremely fortunate to be in the play-offs but produced exciting football to win promotion in two of the three games. We then suffered an awful season to return us to where we started. Brady made one single promise and that was to play edge of the seat football. Well, I can't remember a duller team to watch than this. The reason we are in the top half of the table has to be down to some outstanding goalkeeping and a stubborn defence. That don't impress me much.

[guest2995]

The covid season we were extremely fortunate to be in the play-offs but produced exciting football to win promotion in two of the three games. We then suffered an awful season to return us to where we started. Brady made one single promise and that was to play edge of the seat football. Well, I can't remember a duller team to watch than this. The reason we are in the top half of the table has to be down to some outstanding goalkeeping and a stubborn defence. That don't impress me much.

the football under Curle was dire and a lot worst than how we play now IMHU

[cobbler151]

I would agree that we have been poor for some time now but i have yet to hear anyone come up with how they would do anything differently .
We have been ravaged by injuries all season and McWilliams is the latest crucial player to affect us .
The recruitment has been largely successful and most people would have accepted the players we brought in during the window .
Etete left without giving any notice at all because his agent wanted an earner .
We failed to get another midfielder who pulled out at the very last minute on deadline day from a championship club .
Our highest paid player by far is a legacy signing that is next to useless .
If we played 2 up front it may help but our midfield gets over ran .
We are over performing and patience is needed .

Same formation                            

With    Appere Eppiah Pinnock Pollock playing up top

Starting with basic instructions of keep the ball on the ground?

[everbrite]

The covid season we were extremely fortunate to be in the play-offs but produced exciting football to win promotion in two of the three games. We then suffered an awful season to return us to where we started. Brady made one single promise and that was to play edge of the seat football. Well, I can't remember a duller team to watch than this. The reason we are in the top half of the table has to be down to some outstanding goalkeeping and a stubborn defence. That don't impress me much.

The best teams have a strong defensive unit; we do for instance. So you are not impressed by our defensive unit? Yesterday they kept the score down in quite frankly a very disappointing display by the midfield and the fwds. Perhaps Sowerby and Lewis were simply outnumbered at times. Presume you are an NTFC fan which is hard to believe considering your attitude to the Club as a whole together with your diabolical quasi political comments on certain but prominent posters on here.

[Mysterious Curle]

Eppiah could do some damage on tonight’s showing.

This…

Should have started him.

[Coolcat]

An important game like today and we couldn’t even manage to take a thousand….the football is no fun!

Likewise, for an even more important game for them (inroads to playoffs/automatic, record breaking 11th straight win, momentum...) Mansfield could barely muster 5,500 home fans!

[Coolcat]

The referee this, the referee that. For Carr's sake stop it. The referees may be bad, the referees may be brilliant but they only do what they think is right. The team has to win the game not the referee. Blaming a referee is a bit like blaming the ice when you go arse over tit.

We did some research into yesterday's referee. See how many Mansfield wins he has engineered, overseen or erm, refereed!
Bloke's a c**t!

[The 12th Marquis of Sixfields]

Yes they did when we had a series of corners and free kicks. You miss so much on iFollow!

yeah , they're too busy actually watching the match

[everbrite]

yeah , they're too busy actually watching the match

Makes sense!

[Coolcat]

Yes, Cobblers fans certainly fairly muted today, in response to the turgid display on the pitch and certainly in contrast to the Mansfield fans who were pretty loud and animated, particularly those in the upper tier near us. Mansfield seemed far more up for it than us and at times seemed to have more players and threatened to overrun us. Apart from the Pinnock effort that hit the bar we never really looked like scoring although we did seem to come to life a bit more after the sending off and came close a couple of times, particularly Rose who had a real chance to redeem himself and shut a few people up, myself included, but headed a great chance tamely into the keepers arms with the whole goal to aim at. Mansfield fans were chanting his name before he came on. They’re welcome to him.

No, I didn't notice Lewis go off either!  

As for the Mansfield fans being more animated particularly in the upper tier no in particular about it - they were the ONLY ones singing, drum assisted for those in particular without the blessing of spontaneity and originality.
The rest of the stand, behind the goal were statues...at least the North Stand sometimes adds to the atmosphere at Sixfields.
Their third side of the ground is worse than our East Stand too...Beds!  

[DrillingCobbler]

Hugely disappointing performance yesterday. Mansfield were superior to us all over the pitch and I guess that most of us saw what we felt most likely was going to happen beforehand...

Since the turn of the year I have witnessed watching one of the most BORING Cobblers teams I've seen. At times its effective but as many others have observed, its really down to us having a brilliant goal keeper. With Cornell or Mitchell or Arnold in goal this season, I suspect we'd be comfortably in the bottom half. Roberts has really highlighted the importance of having a good keeper...and why a disproportionate amount of the playing budget should always be invested in that area. Whatever he's on, Id double it...and forgo a player elsewhere in the squad next season to pay for it.

I've still seen no justification as to why Pollock was recalled, he's yet to get a single minute of time on the pitch and this despite two hugely turgid performances out of three since he came back from Boston. Hugely frustrating. Surely he has to play now that Mr Invisible will be unavailable next week? Its been time for weeks upon week to try something different, but our management team continue to keep faith with the same tactics and a lone striker who is left completely isolated up top.

Whatever happens, I don't want us to qualify for the playoffs. Negative? Well let me explain. Next season starts about 8 weeks after the play off final (July29th). The teams who make the play off finals will be at a huge disadvantage in the transfer market, because for 3 or 4 weeks they will not know which players to target due to not knowing what league they are going to be in. All the decent ones will be mopped up or in advanced talks, leaving the Wembley finalists trying to play catch up. During the covid season, I think all 3 playoff winners were immediately relegated. We would be far better off finishing 8th and getting on with the job of rebuilding straight away, than finishing 4th,5th, 6th or 7th...